Perino Model 1908
|barrel= |weight=*1908: *1910: |justweight= |width= |height= |magazine=100-round hopper fed with 20-round ammunition strips |cycle=450rpm |effective= |range= |usedby=Kingdom of Italy |velocity= }}The Perino Model 1908 was an early Italian machine gun designed by Giuseppe Perino and produced by Fabbrica d'Armi di Terni. History Designed in 1901 by an Italian officer, Giuseppe Perino, the Perino was designed to fulfill the Royal Italian Army's request for a domestically-produced machine gun. The Perino was then trialed against two other machine guns in 1903; the Maxim and a prototype by Bergmann; the outcome was decided in 1906 when the Maxim was adopted by said Army. Perino later resubmitted his weapon again to another trial, with much better results; Perino's design outperformed its contemporaries during that trial. Despite the adoption of the Maxim during that time, to promote domestic production, the Royal Italian Army approved production of the Perino at Fabbrica d'Armi di Terni. While the weapon was ahead of its time and made to very high standards, the Perino proved inadequate for field use due to its weight. To combat this, Perino designed a lighter variant of the gun in 1910. It was trialed in 1911 against another Italian competitor, the Fiat-Revelli, but no firm decision to adopt either gun was made at that time. Trials of the Perino were still ongoing when World War I broke out in 1914, whereupon the Royal Army required an immediate supply of machine guns at short notice. The Fiat factory in Turin was already tooled up to produce the Fiat-Revelli and therefore that gun was taken into quickly taken into service out of convenience. All development of the Perino ceased thereafter, with only some 150 units having been produced. In the early stages of the war, Italy fielded limited numbers of Perino machine guns alongside the Fiat-Revelli. Some are known to have been captured by the Austro-Hungarians. Only one example of the Perino is known to survive today. Design The Perino's receiver is made of bronze and used a similar charging handle to that of a Maxim or Schwarzlose machine gun. Like many automatic weapons of the time, the Perino is water-cooled; water is inserted into a cooling jacket which encases the barrel, connected by means of a hose inserted in a receptacle at the bottom of the cooling jacket which leads to a tank. The vapor released through the water heating up inside the cooling jacket is not released through a hole like on the Maxim, but is released through the same receptacle where the hose is connected into, where the water tank also acts as a means for the vapor to be deposited. Probably the most unique thing about the Perino is its feeding system; the weapon is fed via 20-round ammunition strips à la Hotchkiss machine gun, but with the addition of a box-shaped hopper located on the left side of the weapon, which could hold up to five of said ammunition strips. The feed strips and cartridges have to be continuously lubricated to prevent jamming. Once a clip is fired, the spent casings remain on the clip due to the weapon's internal workings replacing the spent casings after they are fired; the clip is then ejected out of the gun à la Hotchkiss, but due to the hopper system, a new clip gets pushed into the feeding system. Gallery PerinoMuseum.jpg|The only known surviving Perino Model 1908. References *[https://www.forgottenweapons.com/italian-perino-machine-gun/ Article on Forgotten Weapons] *Wikipedia article on which this article was based (in Italian) Category:Medium machine guns